Latest Flower Stories

Research by University of Leeds plant scientists has uncovered a snapshot of evolution in progress, by tracing how a gene mutation over 100 million years ago led flowers to make male and female parts in different ways.The findings "“ published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition "“ provide a perfect example of how diversity stems from such genetic 'mistakes'. The research also opens the door to further investigation into how plants...

Gardeners could help out the declining worldwide bee population by planting flowers that are red or have stripes along the veins, UK researchers announced on Monday.Experts from the John Innes Centre (JIC), an institute of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), studied the foraging patterns of bumblebees on a field of snapdragon plants located near the British city of Norwich.By comparing the number of visits the insects made to each plant, they were able to...

Intermittent light system more cost-effective than incandescent illuminationWhen consumers visit garden centers in spring they will most likely buy flowering ornamental plants that are ready for their home gardens. Studies have shown that consumers favor plants that are already in flower rather than those that are "vegetative""”a preference that can present multiple challenges for commercial growers.To satisfy consumers' wishes, producers of ready-to-flower ornamentals like...

Patterns of flower biodiversity point to the importance of having 'room to grow'What, in nature, drives the incredible diversity of flowers? This question has sparked debate since Darwin described flower diversification as an 'abominable mystery.' The answer has become a lot clearer, according to scientists at the University of Calgary whose research on the subject is published today in the on-line edition of the journal Ecology Letters.Drs. Jana Vamosi and Steven Vamosi of the Department of...

Why do some insect-eating plants like sundews keep their flowers so far away from their traps? New research suggests that it isn't a clever trick to keep pollinators safe, it's about getting pollinatedSex can be complicated at the best of times, but plants have an extra difficulty. If you're a plant who relies on insects to pollinate your flowers and reproduce, you will want your flowerstalks to be long. That way your flowers are on display to insects above the crowd. But if your stalk is too...

Two Illicium species provide warm flower nurseries as a reward to pollinating midgesCould a "hot" flower attract pollinators by serving as a reward in a plant-pollinator mutualism? Many flowering plants produce nectar and pollen as rewards in exchange for pollination services by insects and other animals. Interestingly, however, a few plants have flowers that also produce heat metabolically"”so what is the adaptive function of this flower heating?Susanne Renner from the University...

Scientists have uncovered a new piece in the puzzle about why some plants flower in spring/autumn and some in summerA team of researchers from Warwick have isolated a gene responsible for regulating the expression of CONSTANS, an important inducer of flowering, in Arabidopsis.'Being able to understand and ultimately control seasonal flowering will enable more predictable flowering, better scheduling and reduced wastage of crops', explained Dr Jackson.Whilst the relationship between CONSTANS...

The University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, nestled in Strawberry Canyon just above the central campus, features a mind-boggling 12,000 kinds of plants and breathtaking views of the Bay Area. The term breathtaking soon will describe the rotten flesh-like stench of the garden's about-to-blossom Titan Arum, also known as the corpse plant.This will be the sixth Titan Arum flower to fascinate visitors to the garden's Tropical House since 2005. But the still rare event, a plant...

The world's oldest known example of a fig wasp has been found on the Isle of Wight. The fossil wasp is almost identical to the modern species, proving that this tiny but specialized insect has remained virtually unchanged for over 34 million years.The fossil isn't a new find but was wrongly identified as an ant when it was first discovered in the 1920s. Fig wasp expert at the University of Leeds, Dr Steve Compton, was called in to study the fossil when the late Dr Mikhail Kozlov spotted the...

Some cut flowers and potted plants are better than others at fending off the aging process, known as senescence. To help tomorrow's blooms stay fresh longer, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant physiologist Cai-Zhong Jiang is investigating the gene-controlled mechanisms of plants' aging. Such probing may eventually reveal how to modify flowers' aging-linked genes, or the proteins that are products of those genes.Jiang is with the ARS Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit at Davis,...